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☆ I quit my tech job due to burnout and left London. Moving to Lisbon cured my loneliness and restored my work-life balance.
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-28 | by ( Ella Hopkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

He moved to Lisbon in 2023 and started a new company focused on building community. Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementThis as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Charlie Baron, 30-year-old founder in Lisbon, Portugal, about moving from London. When I moved to Lisbon, I was burned out and lonely from working from home for a tech startup I'd co-founded. Getting investment and finding tech talent in London might have been easier, and it would have been faster to set up a business in London.

Persons: Charlie Baron, —, I'd, Tesla, ChargedUp, paddleboarding, He'd, We'd, would've, didn't Organizations: Baron, Service, Loughborough University, Social Locations: London, Lisbon, Portugal, VCs, California, Spain, France, Europe, Rent

☆ Exclusive: AI startup Attention just raised $14 million to bring its natural language processing tech to sales calls
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-22 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AI startup Attention raised a $14 million Series A funding round from Alven, Eniac, and Frst. The startup uses AI and natural language processing to glean data and next steps from sales calls. AdvertisementNew York-based AI startup Attention, which uses natural language processing to fill out customer relationship management (CRM) programs and generate action items from sales calls, just raised a fresh round of funding. Late-stage startup Gong, which also records sales calls, raised $250 million in Series E funding in 2021 at a $7.25 billion valuation. And 11x.ai, which is building AI sales reps, raised a $50 million Series B last month from a16z, TechCrunch reported.

Persons: —, Anis Bennaceur, Matthias Wickenburg, Bennaceur, Wickenburg, Swipecast Organizations: Service, French VC, Eniac, Liquid2 Ventures, Ventures, TechCrunch Locations: Alven, New York, a16z

☆ My wife and I gave up $1 million in Big Tech pay to move from California back to India. I couldn't find purpose in the US.
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-07 | by ( Shubhangi Goel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

AdvertisementThis as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nithin Hassan, who moved from California to Bengaluru, India, in 2023 to launch his startup. I grew up in and around Bengaluru, India, in the late 1990s and 2000s. I got married in 2013, and my wife also worked in Big Tech in the US. My wife is still working at a Big Tech company and spends much more time commuting than she did back in the US. Did you leave Big Tech to pursue a career in a completely different field?

Persons: Nithin Hassan, Hassan, —, We've Organizations: Meta, Service, Cisco, Amazon, Microsoft, Big Tech Locations: California, Bengaluru, India, Big, Bay

☆ When Bay Area rent got too expensive, I bought a house in the mountains. Living here is a dream, but I'm uncertain about the future.
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-19 | by ( Perri Ormont Blumberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

I'm the cofounder and CEO of Santa Cruz Fungi. I live in Boulder Creek, California, and my business is headquartered in Santa Cruz. In May 2016, I bought a home for my husband, Paul Lazazzera, and me in Boulder Creek. We married the following year, and Paul started our business in 2021. I had to go over my budget and closed at $535,000 almost a year later on a 740-square-foot house set on half an acre in Boulder Creek.

Persons: —, Katie Sarna, It's, I've, Paul Lazazzera, Paul, Katie, I'd, Shroomsicles, Rida, There's, Lauryn Haas Organizations: Service, Santa Cruz Fungi, Business, lhaas Locations: Santa Cruz, Boulder Creek , California, San Francisco, Boulder Creek, Boulder, Paul, Katie Sarna Boulder, It's, New York City, Francisco

☆ Zive wants to make company data more accessible — here's the pitch deck it used to raise $3.2 million
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-03 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Zive has raised $3.2 million in pre-seed funding to untangle companies' unstructured data. Founded by the team behind Haiilo, Zive uses generative AI to improve data accessibility. Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementZive, a new startup aiming to untangle companies' data, has raised $3.2 million in pre-seed funding. Now, with Zive, the team wants to use generative AI to make the large amounts of unstructured data companies hold more accessible.

Persons: Zive, Haiilo, — Organizations: Service, Equity Partners, Business

☆ I'm a product manager who interned at Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Now I'm opening up a candy store.
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-31 | by ( Jaures Yip | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Read previewThis as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Elly Ross, a head of product at an e-commerce company who is starting her own candy shop, "lil sweet treat." I was going on a walk to lunch one day and I passed by the unit that is now "lil sweet treat" — and I immediately knew that this was the spot for the candy shop. Product management skills in the candy shop worldA lot of the skills that I cultivated as a PM have been so helpful in building "lil sweet treat." When you buy this large amount of candy, you have to transfer that candy from one of the candy store bags into another vessel at home. Every time that your shopper reaches for a sweet treat, they see the "lil sweet treat" branding associate that sweet treat with "lil sweet treat."

Persons: —, Elly Ross, It's, I've, it's, we've, they're, I'm Organizations: Service, Business, Google, Blackstone Group, Apple, Microsoft, Big Tech Locations: Swedish, New York, Germany, New York City

☆ Ex-Google staffers are building a social-mapping platform for online and IRL communities
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-21 | by ( Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

"We essentially see ourselves as a Google Maps for communities," PamPam cofounder Helena Jaramillo told Business Insider. The platform draws its data from Mapbox and Google Places. "We used all these apps obviously to do that, Google Maps or getting lists or recommendations from friends, but it just never really felt right." The team behind Zenly, which Snapchat acquired and morphed into its Snap Map feature, is building another new social map app called "Bump." AdvertisementPamPam sees its creators as "community creators," Jaramillo explained.

Persons: —, PamPam, Helena Jaramillo, Jaramillo, Carlo Jörges, Jörges, We've, What's, Snapchat, Raya, monetization Organizations: Service, Google, Business, Big Tech, Facebook, YouTube Locations: New York City, Philadelphia, Mapbox, doesn't

☆ I worked at Morgan Stanley, Amazon, and Slack before realizing I wasn't fulfilled. Motherhood changed my priorities.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-16 | by ( Perri Ormont Blumberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Early in my career, I held positions as a software engineer at Morgan Stanley, Redi Technologies, and Amazon. I then worked at a startup and AppNexus before becoming the senior engineering manager and head of search engineering at Slack. In my early years, we grew rapidly, I loved my job, and the high salary was a nice bonus. I work more hours than I did at SlackI have more flexibility than at Slack, but my working hours are longer.

Persons: —, Hera Wentong Li, Morgan Stanley, Slack, Curio, Kimberly Atiyeh, we're, Kimberly, strategize, I'm Organizations: Service, Cornell, Business, Redi Technologies Locations: New York City, Singapore

☆ I quit a 13-year tech career because motherhood changed my priorities. I have no regrets.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-16 | by ( Perri Ormont Blumberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. After a 13-year tech career, I founded Curio, a subscription book club that fosters bilingual learning in children. Early in my career, I held positions as a software engineer at Morgan Stanley, Redi Technologies, and Amazon. I then worked at a startup and AppNexus before becoming the senior engineering manager and head of search engineering at Slack. I work more hours than I did at SlackI have more flexibility than at Slack, but my working hours are longer.

☆ Storyblok, an Austrian CMS startup, just raised $80 million for US expansion using this 12-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-04 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Storyblok, an Austrian startup, has raised $80 million in Series C financing. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementAn Austrian startup that offers content management systems (CMS) for businesses has raised $80 million in Series C funding. Angerer told Business Insider that the company was earning $1 million in annual recurring revenue while it was bootstrapped. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: —, Alexander Feiglstorfer, Dominik Angerer, Angerer Organizations: Brighton Park Capital, Service, Business Locations: Austrian

☆ Fast Food Forever: How McHaters Lost the Culture War
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-12 | by ( Brian Gallagher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The camera zooms in on a large woman, sitting on a cooler at the beach. It cuts to a shirtless man, also quite large, his face blurred out. The next shot shows another overweight man, sitting on a beach towel with plastic grocery bags arrayed in front of him. Directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, the bootstrapped, lo-fi documentary was a smash hit, grossing more than $22 million on a $65,000 budget. McDonald’s, specifically, became a symbol for the glossy hegemony of American capitalism both at home and abroad.

Persons: ”, “, Queen’s, Morgan Spurlock, Spurlock Locations: America

☆ I left my VP role at 25 to build a startup. Leaving security and a steady paycheck behind was hard, but I have no regrets.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-30 | by ( Perri Ormont Blumberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Timothy Gamble left his VP role at Walker & Dunlop to cofound HelloData.ai in 2022. I gathered and normalized real-estate data, but my role quickly expanded, and I was soon in charge of the data infrastructure that processed billions of real-estate data points daily. Related storiesNico left W&D one year before me, but we kept in touch. When I left W&D, we decided it made sense to start a real-estate AI company since we both had an entrepreneurial spirit, strong engineering backgrounds, and real-estate domain expertise. Deciding to leave my VP role was scary but the fear of complacency and the prospect of looking back with regret for not pursuing my passions were far greater motivators.

Persons: Timothy Gamble, Dunlop, cofound, Gamble, —, It's, Enodo, might've, Nico Lassaux, Marc Rutzen, Nico, Marc, cofounding, you'll, we're, I've Organizations: Walker, Service Locations: Washington ,, HelloData.ai, Enodo

☆ This defense-tech startup bootstrapped its way to nearly $30 million in revenue. Now, it has another $35 million from Sapphire Ventures.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-07 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Now, Defense Unicorns, a startup that creates open-source software for national security systems, has announced it raised $35 million in a round of funding led by Sapphire Ventures and Ansa Capital. The world of open-source software for the military is small, making the opportunity much greater. TestifySec, a tiny startup building open-source software for the Department of Homeland Security, raised a $6 million seed round last fall. This year, Defense Unicorns says it will use the initial round of funding to go on a hiring spree. Defense Unicorns will compete for talent in artificial intelligence with tons of other startups.

Persons: —, Jai Das, Rob Slaughter, Das, siphoning, Slaughter, it's, Lockheed Martin Organizations: Service, Sapphire Ventures, Unicorns, Business, Defense Unicorns, Ansa, Department of Defense, Air Force, Lockheed, Department of Homeland Security Locations: Chicago

☆ A 34-year-old salon owner moved to NYC as a teen to cut hair. She explains how she bootstrapped a one-chair salon out of a basement before expanding to 2 bustling Williamsburg locations.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

At 21, she bootstrapped Headchop, which started as a one-chair basement salon in Williamsburg. To step into Headchop Hair Studio is to step back in time. The humble basement salon, sandwiched between residential buildings on Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is easy to miss. Mabry, pictured styling hair at Headchop, says that her "fascination" with hair began in middle school. Mabry's original location, Headchop, is by appointment only.

Persons: Martha Ellen Mabry, bootstrapped, —, Alisha Wetherill, Mabry, Headchop, Samuel Robert Bullen Mabry's, messaged, she'd, It'll, Michelle Iorio, Iorio, Clinton Van Gemert, I'm, Hayley Carloni, I'd, chemo —, Lil, She'd, I've Organizations: Service, New, New Yorker, Business, South Carolina, Craigslist Locations: Williamsburg, Berry, Williamsburg , Brooklyn, New York City, New, South Carolina, New York, Brooklyn, South, DevaChan

☆ 40-year-old who retired early as a millionaire: It was 'boring' and I only lasted 5 months—here's why
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Allison Esposito Medina | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

I worked at Foursquare and Google, and in 2014, I started my business, Tech Ladies. I was proud of the mission, but I never exercised or took a vacation, and I rarely saw friends. From retired to unretiredWhen I retired, we moved from New York City to New Jersey for my husband's job. I started weightlifting and took long walks with new friends. The truth is, I never had balance in my worklife before, but I owed it to myself now to try.

Persons: Addie, couldn't, Gen Z, I'd Organizations: Google, Tech Locations: York's, New York City, New Jersey

☆ I quit my $400,000 Morgan Stanley job to become a startup founder. Loneliness was the biggest challenge, but I don't regret it.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-13 | by ( Ellen Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

I decided to leave investment banking because I'd lost the meaning and purpose of my work, and I wanted to find it. Becoming a managing director wasn't a specific goal when I started in investment banking. I realized money is just part of the puzzle. The biggest expense isn't the business investment but the opportunity cost and covering my living expenses while extending my financial runway. I don’t have fixed commitments, like a mortgage or children, which gave me the flexibility to leave my banking career.

Persons: —, Valeri Gervaziev, Morgan Stanley, I'd, wasn't, could’ve, HENRY, I’ve, I've, Lauryn Haas Organizations: Service, Barclays, Business, lhaas@businessinsider.com Locations: London, Bulgaria

☆ Y Combinator-backed trading app Pluto Markets just raised $2.6 million with this 14-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Pluto Markets, a trading app backed by famed accelerator Y Combinator, has raised $2.6 million in fresh funds. The Danish fintech startup, founded in 2021, wants to upend the market for retail trading offerings in Europe. "Companies raised a lot of money to blitz scale across the EU but have now focused on their core markets. Unlike most fintech brokerages, Pluto secured an EU-wide investment license before it had raised $1 million in funding, having bootstrapped and stayed lean. You can check out Pluto Market's 14-slide pitch deck below:

Persons: Joakim Bruchman, Goldman Sachs, We've, Bruchmann, Pluto, Oscar Vingtoft Organizations: Business, Companies, Trade Republic, Saxo Bank, EU Locations: Danish, Europe, Denmark, France, Germany, Berlin

☆ Mark Zuckerberg is serving peak Relatable Zuck with his laptop perched on a stack of books
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Kwan Wei Kevin Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meet Relatable Zuck, who wants you to know that he, too, uses a book stack for a laptop stand. The Meta CEO has gone from a hoodie-wearing tech wunderkind to a shredded martial arts practitioner. Mark Zuckerberg in the early days of Facebook's founding (left) and Mark Zuckerberg today (right). While most were battling cabin fever or binge-watching Netflix during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zuckerberg said he'd picked up mixed martial arts instead. AdvertisementIn fact, martial arts has become such a big part of Zuckerberg's life, that it even warranted a mention in Meta's latest annual report.

Persons: Relatable Zuck, Mark Zuckerberg, —, Taylor Swift, Zuckerberg, Zuck, Today's Zuckerberg, Stanley, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein —, he'd Organizations: Service, Facebook, Netflix Locations: arm's, California, Meta's

☆ One Click LCA makes construction more sustainable. It just raised $43.8 million with this 15-slide pitch deck.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Finnish software company One Click LCA, which aims to make construction more sustainable, has raised 40 million euros, $43 million, in its first external funding round after it was bootstrapped for the past 22 years. One Click LCA helps them measure, report, and reduce emissions of their products and projects. It embeds emissions data into every decision, suggests changes to reduce environmental impact and improve circularity, and allows users to model changes. One Click LCA puts this number at 57% based on its aggregation of existing data and its own calculations. "That's not possible to do after you have commissioned the design," Pasanen said.

Persons: Panu Pasanen, Pasanen Organizations: Business, US, Leadership, Energy, Environmental, PSG Equity, InfraVia Capital Partners, Sustainability Locations: Helsinki

☆ Confessions of a startup founder's wife
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +20 min

I wished I had told Kyle that I would understand if he wanted to quit. That's as apt a description of Kyle's startup as it is of our relationship. I'm not sure Kyle has found as many perks to being a startup founder married to a startup reporter. Now Kyle's startup has pivoted a third time. The truth is, I don't know if Kyle's startup will make it.

Persons: Kyle, Kyle shrugged, pang, I'd, hadn't, Scott Belsky, It's, messier, I've, he'd, Jillian, Chris Dixon, Andreessen Horowitz, Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott, Schulze, TikTok, Josh Cochran, Marc Andreessen, I'm, He'd, Eric Paley, Steve Jobs, —, Playbyte, he's, Rohan Seth, Paul Davison, Steve Huffman, hasn't, Instagram, it's, Zelda, That's, cradling, Melia Russell Organizations: Apple Watch, Steam, Francisco's Mission, University of California, TechCrunch, White House, YouTube, Labor Locations: Champagne, Francisco's, Berkeley, San Francisco, New York, America, Playbyte, Kyle, Boston, Bay, sobs

☆ A sneakerhead built a YouTube empire with 1.1 million subscribers. Here's how much he makes a year from ads and sponsorships.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-16 | by ( Margaret Fleming | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Fowler had around 150,000 YouTube subscribers at that point. The YouTube channel, now with 1.1 million subscribers, brought in about $485,000 in gross revenue from advertising and sponsorship deals last year. But Fowler doesn't just stick to YouTube — his budding business empire also includes sales on the live-shopping platform Whatnot and his own apparel company. The larger portion of Fowler's YouTube revenue comes from ads, which brought in an estimated $292,500 in 2022, Insider verified with documentation of the earnings.

Persons: Seth Fowler, Fowler, Apthcry, he's, YouTubers, it's, time's, I've, Christmastime, sneaker giveaways, Apple, He's, Ye, influencers, Qias Omar, Amber Vittoria Organizations: YouTube, NY, Adidas, Facebook

☆ How a sneakerhead built a YouTube empire with over a million subscribers and $485,000 in annual revenue from ads and sponsorships
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-13 | by ( Margaret Fleming | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

☆ The CEO of $800 million startup SuperOrdinary explains why he's betting on live shopping and creators as it raises new funding to expand
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-13 | by ( Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

SuperOrdinary wants to be the next unicorn out of the creator economy — and it's betting on live shopping and influencers to get there. Why SuperOrdinary is bullish on live shoppingWhile live shopping has had a lukewarm appeal in the US, SuperOrdinary sees itself as a potential breakthrough. "SuperOrdinary has been live shopping or livestreaming since the beginning of the company," Reis said. The key to cracking live shopping isn't just discounts, Reis added, but fine-tuning the experience for the American consumer. "We really think that the consumer here is slowly moving across to more entertainment-style shopping," Reis said.

Persons: SuperOrdinary, Julian Reis, Reis, Fanfix, " Reis, We've, TikTok, Addison, Sephora, MrBeast, Jen Atkin's, David Yi's skincare Organizations: Intelligence, Bizrate, Brands Locations: Shanghai, Los Angeles, Indonesia

☆ My life as a startup founder is way better because I didn't take VC money. Here are 8 upsides.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-02 | by ( Melissa Kwan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Here are 8 unconventional ways I get to live my life because I didn't take VC money:AdvertisementAdvertisement1. I'm able to make my own scheduleI start my day at noon, go out for dinner, and work until midnight. I'm able to grow slowly – the way that I want to growIt took us 36 months to hit $1 million annual recurring revenue. I can raise capital on my own termsA common misconception with bootstrapped companies is that they raise zero capital. That kind of sacrifice is not for everyone, and sometimes I do wonder whether it'd just be easier to raise capital.

Persons: Melissa Kwan, bootstrapped, Kwan, —, we're Organizations: Service Locations: –, New York

☆ 3 small-business owners share the unconventional ways they funded their companies, from credit cards to tax credits
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Lily Katzman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

One founder told Insider she used credit cards to support her business growth. This article is part of "Starting Up Your Small Business," a series exploring steps small-business owners can take when starting out, transitioning, or scaling up. She also looked for cards that offered benefits that could support her business growth. "If I had stayed where I was and we bootstrapped, I would have had to take on a lot more and wouldn't have the time to invest in building Fresh Starts," Dreizen Howell said. Though there is no one-size-fits-all way to fund a company, Dreizen Howell advises founders to think big about the possibilities.

Persons: —, Elizabeth Gore, Cash, David Manshoory, Chloe Homan, didn't, that's, Homan, You've, she's, Alleyoop, Manshoory, Olivia Dreizen Howell, Dreizen Howell Organizations: Service, Curlfriend, Delta, Alleyoop, Registry Locations: Belize

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